REPORTER FILE PHOTO Shelter Islander Amanda Clark, left and Sarah Lihan during a training session ahead of the London 2012 Summer Olympics.

Every four years the Summer Olympics gives me license to dream.

As I watch swimmer Michael Phelps, shaped like a garden trowel with flippers for feet, win another gold medal in the 200-meter butterfly, I imagine myself slicing through the water like an eel. And when the bouncy, sparkly nymph Simone Biles flies through her floor exercise like Tinkerbell, I think back to my high school gymnastics class, in which I once executed a forward roll on the balance beam flanked by my classmates who pushed me back onto the beam as I rolled heavily off. (more…)

Taking responsibility
To the Editor:
I own a house in a community of half acre lots in which two houses have been built and rented out to at least four families at a time for as little as a night, a weekend or a week. There are often six cars in the driveway or on the street. My understanding is that the property owner has approached a third person to buy another lot between the other two. (more…)

Peter Needham, coach of the Shelter Island School sailing team, reports that “the sailors have been enjoying the unusually balmy weather. Amanda Clark has been coaching them with drills that will prepare them for future regattas. In the picture above, are Katie Doyle on the left and Holly Ross on the right. They are just completing a roll tack, where they purposely roll the boat over a bit and then snap it back upright as they come about to get a little boost from fanning the sails.”